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44  (1976)     Creating Simple Lifestyle Calendars

    May our barns overflow with every possible crop.  (Psalm 144:13)
   
     As the nation's bicentennial year 1976 drew near we developed a
calendar with references to the simple lifestyle ways that was included in
the book 99 Ways to a Simple Lifestyle.  The concept called for photographs
that were pertinent to the season along with a quote on a particular day
where the suggestion was a propos.  The calendar's theme for 1976 was the
bicentennial and was more national in character but with my movement back
to Appalachia the next year it took on the character of the region.  

    Photographic Themes.  As the calendar source of simple lifestyle
photographs, Warren Brunner, a professional photographer from Berea, was
ultimately chosen because of his expertise and his library of 12,000 photo.
We settled early on developing a set theme such as food or animals or
children or women of Appalachia.  We spend considerable time making sure
the photo corresponds to the month of the year and ensuring that the image
is politically correct.  We avoid tobacco smoking, snake handling,
drinking, hog killing, and an assorted number of activities or subjects
that would offend certain individuals or groups.  We can never be too
careful.  We had several complaints about a photo of a skinny dipper, but
the compliments exceeded the complaints.  We have had consistent buyers for
two or more decades and some request vintage photo from earlier calendars
for their own scrap books of Brunner photographs.  We are never sure what
hits the fancy of buyers.  However, most customers agree that Warren
Brunner captures Appalachian life in his black-and-white photos. I have
written a large bulk of the sayings on the calendars and Mark Spencer, the
calendar designer, has attempted to give fresher suggestions each year.
     
    Advantages.  We had no expectation at the creation of the first simple
lifestyle calendar during 1975 that this calendar would be around a quarter
century later.  The basic idea behind the calendar, which seems to still be
valid today, is that people would like to have suggestions in the form of
daily reminders of things to do to live more simply.  Other groups such as
Alternatives, a producer of simple lifestyle materials in Sioux City, Iowa,
have imitated this approach in succeeding years, but no group continued it
on fresh annual calendar basis.  The practical reminders included in the
calendars remind folks of what they can do at special times of the year.

   We have become convinced that people seeing a basic message of living
simply day after day will assimilate some of the philosophy, provided they
are open to change.  We hope suggestions year after year will impress on
people such messages as using renewable energy, cooking with nutritious and
local food, and creating backyard gardens.  The calendars have made ASPI a
modest income for a dozen years and have paid part of the salaries for the
design person (Mark Spencer) and publications mailing person (Martha Bond)
as well as overhead.  We have not yet achieved full market expansion
potential even though we have tried to some degree.  The design of the
calendar is our own insight that we need to have a healthy mix of art in
public interest science that is Appalachian in character.  Mountain people
are quite artistic in their story-telling, music, craft work, foods, and
basic ways of life.  The culture has a rich artistic flavor and that is
what we seek to portray in the course of the work.  We are convinced that
while not capitalizing on the stereotypes of Appalachia we still have had
a good wholesome effect.  

WE HAVE NEVER TO OUR KNOWLEDGE SHOWN A PICTURE
THAT IS DEMEANING TO THE APPALACHIAN CULTURE.

   Future Hopes.  At times ASPI considered adding  color photographs tp
the calendar, though the price of production is quite high.  We have also
wanted to expand the calendar by marketing it on the World Wide Web to a
broader audience.  The difficulty for non-commercial people like us is how
much talent and time must be allocated to promoting an annual calendar.  We
have designed and sold ASPI note cards, which have been marketable for a
number of years.  The trouble with an annual calendar is that sales move
from October to December and then plummet at the first of the year.  

   Reflections.  The Simple Lifestyle Calendar has been our window into
the world of commerce.  In some ways we seek to be business people and in
others we know that there is more to our calendars than mere sales.  What
occurs in a realization that people need consumer products to stay alive,
so let us make them meaningful as best we can.  We take the Good News to
the marketplace and not leave it in sacred space alone.  This then becomes
a step along the spiritual journey.  Our calendar is to become a daily
reminder to the ordinary citizen that we must always be mindful of the call
to simplify our lives, and to do this with a gentle nudge.

    Prayer for Staying Awake.  God, give us the strength to be always
alert as to ways to live more simply in our everyday life.  Allow this to
be an enjoyable exercise.


45   (1977)     This Land is Home to Me
   
   No longer are you to be named "Forsaken," nor your land "Abandoned,"
but you shall be called "My Delight," and your land "The Wedded."        
          (Isaiah 62:4)

    Sickness at Home.  When someone in the family is critically ill we
have to go and be present to them.  This urgency applies very much to
circumstances in my home state.  But the concern for the critically ill
extends to communities as well as to individual people.  In fact, in 1977
I was being drawn to return to my native Kentucky because a deadly
"community cancer" was occurring in the form of devastation of the land
through surface mining of coal.  My heart was always in the region of my
birth, but now there was an urgency to return and be present as is part of
the magnetic force pulling Appalachians home when tough times occur.  We
see land and people as perpetually bonded.  For twelve youthful years I
would look out of the milking room window on the farm in northeast Kentucky
and watch the sunrise over Appalachia's crests.  I fell in love with our
land and retained that bonding throughout my life.  Now, decades later, the
call to return was quite distinct.  I recall that Pope John Paul II, during
the crackdown on Solidarity in the last days of the Communist rule, said he
would volunteer to return to Poland and be present with his people.  He too
was being pulled by the magnetic force of native loyalty and compassion in
its deepest meaning.

   Conflicts.  A potential conflict arises for those who love their native
lands.  When I entered the Jesuits I found that the first words of our
formal incorporating document is "Our vocation is to travel to all parts of
the world..."  That meant we were mobile and willing to go anywhere where
the need arises.  I was entering a global order with a strict vow of
obedience to superiors -- and with missions which are generally elsewhere
from our native lands.  Jesuits are expected to break with their past, not
look back to their place of origins, but devotedly ahead to an indefinite
future calling.  However, that  conflict did not occur in this instance.
While at the Washington center, we were busy decentralizing the office and
incorporating a regional operation called "Appalachia -- Science in the
Public Interest" (ASPI).  At the same time in early 1977 my Jesuit superior
(the Chicago Jesuit Provincial), Dan Flaherty, asked me to take the part-
time position of province social ministries director, and said that it
would be best to reside within the east Midwest province boundaries which
included Kentucky.

    Convergence.  Three elements were coming together by June, 1977,
namely, the psychological yearning to return to my native land, the opening
of a regional office in the area, and the desire by my superior that I
reside within the province area of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana or Illinois.  
During late 1976 after a brief period in western Virginia, our Appalachian
team of three (Dennis Darcey, Jerry McMahon and Elaine Burns) established
a temporary ASPI office at Jenkins, Kentucky.  After the official okay from
my Provincial in the summer of '77 we rented a modest office/residence in
downtown Corbin, Kentucky near Interstate 75, Appalachia's major corridor.
In late July, I took quiet leave of DC -- and transferred a load of office
furnishings and files using my brother Frank's truck.  Jerry McMahon who
was an incorporator of ASPI assisted along with CSPIer Ken Bossong with
whom I have had a continuous association over the years.  Also Tony
Kreutzjans, a Jesuit Brother, who was a director of a dorm where I had
served as chaplain in 1969, came down and stayed about three months --
though he found the isolation quite disconcerting.  However, he was
invaluable in helping to set up the ASPI office residence.  Later in the
fall Ken Smith, another native Kentuckian, accompanied me back to
Washington, DC to move the remainder of my DC office files to Kentucky.

   Hearings for the Pastoral.  I participated in the 1975 pastoral letter
by the bishops of Appalachia in three ways.  First I came back in 1974 for
some of the meetings to hear comments by the people as to their needs.  One
was held in Marion, Virginia and others at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and
Charleston, West Virginia.  I was part of a listening team composed of Les
Schmidt, a Glenmary priest working in western Virginia, and Sr. Beth Davies
from St. Charles, Virginia.  A committee that was facilitating the letter
chaired by John Barry, another Glenmary, asked me to write an action plan
for the pastoral.  I gave the few hundred dollars to a West Virginia
activist to write and her draft of the plan turned out a poorly written
diatribe against the Catholic Church.  We couldn't use a single word and
yet the deadline loomed.  I had to write it as an action plan with a strong
Washington-oriented flavor, but other pastoral people preferred well chosen
words to actions.  My version of the action plan was ultimately rejected,
while leaving a bitter taste in my mouth in working with Church groups with
a variety of agendas.  Among my suggestions was to fund a lobbyist dealing
with Appalachian issues -- which I'm still convinced could have been
useful.  Actually, the well written general statement alone was regarded as
"the Pastoral," and it was composed by the gifted writer, Joe Holland who
then was at the Center of Concern and later at St. Thomas University in
Florida.  

    Sauerkraut and the Pastoral.   During the struggles to get the
pastoral letter approved some coal operators did not like the sound of the
wording, and so asked for an interview with the bishops.  This was arranged
by Charlie Curry, president of Wheeling Jesuit College.  We were to come to
the Pittsburgh Airport and talk, but had to cool our heels outdoors as the
Bishops spoke alone to the coal operators.  Finally we got to eat lunch
with the four key bishops, who included  Bishop Ackermann from eastern
Kentucky.  I had never spoken to him before the meeting -- though our
family met him at my brother Ed's ordination.  He was considered one of the
most conservative bishops and perhaps would not give his signature; so Joe
Holland and I were to persuade him.  In fact, we never talked about the
Pastoral, but about sauerkraut and all ways to make, prepare and preserve
it.  He later commented about the luncheon, "I liked those boys."  He
readily signed the Pastoral to the amazement of later historians and
commentators.
   
    Appalachian Coal Issues.  As I moved back to Appalachia and started
ASPI as a regional group we needed some separation.  We had always had an
"Appalachian Project" at CSPI.  In fact, Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia
Treasurer and later Senator, was our catalyst.  Jim Sullivan and I went to
his office in the spring of 1971 after spending a weekend in Kentucky
visiting my folks and going with them to western Kentucky to Muhlenberg
County to see Kentucky's largest coal shovel at the Paradise Mine.  We
convinced him that we should look into the effects of strip mining on the
environment.  He gave us a grant of $2,000, CSPI's first money, and Jim
directed a project with volunteers.  The report which followed narrated
some of the emerging problems related to unregulated surface mining, how
land was being left unreclaimed and thus subject to erosion, and the
potential devastation to communities who had identified for generations
with unspoiled land.  By 1974 we received a grant to follow-up and compare
the strip mine laws of Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania as
background for the Federal regulations being considered.  Mark Morgan,
Glenn Yanik, Tom Conry and David Taylor worked on the study that summer of
1975 and Mark, seeing the project was incomplete, continued to work during
the autumn.  Mark postponed his completion of his law school work at the
University of Kentucky to the utter disapproval of his dad.  I always found
Mark a person of his word and of character, and have valued our continued
contacts over the years.

    We toured the coal fields during these years (1971-75) and heard
people talk about damage to their homes and waterwells from the relentless
blasting of coal seams for extraction.  One must be reminded that "soft"
coal can cause a pick to ring like hitting steel.  It is stubborn stuff,
which takes much muscle or a blast to unloose it from its moorings.  Thus
the reason for the use of the cheap but powerful explosive -- motor oil and
nitrogen fertilizer -- that brought down the Federal Building in Oklahoma
City, years later.  We were quite concerned about the effects of coal
mining because of the disastrous floods of 1977 and 1978.  In fact, in the
spring of 1977, while still residing in Washington, DC, I returned to West
Virginia and Kentucky with Elaine Burns and Jerry McMahon and Ken Bossong
to observe first-hand flood damage.  The forested cover acts like a sponge
when the rain falls.  In steep-slope Appalachia the lack of that forest
cover could and does spell disaster, for heavy rainfall will flow down the
fragile slopes, cover the narrow valleys and sweep everything away in its
path.
 
   In 1977 we received a grant from the National Science Foundation to
research and hold a national conference on blasting effects on homes and
waterwells due to surface mining in 1978.  It was held at Cumberland Falls
State Park.  Mark Morgan again worked with us and lived at our Corbin
office for a few months preparing for the conference along with Ed Moss.
Some of the recommendations of our blasting report which was completed
before coming to Kentucky were included in congressional hearings and in
the Federal Surface Mining Act of 1977.  Jerry Hardt came and produced a
report on the effects of surface mining on Harlan County, Kentucky with an
emphasis to the areas of the county most heavily affected by the recent
flooding.
 
   In the summer of 1978 we also gathered data on the effects of surface
mining on roads in eastern Kentucky and developed a report on that issue as
well.  We had help from the Economics Department at the University of
Kentucky and two summer volunteers, John Clemens and Frank Kazemek,
completed the Citizens' Coal Haul Handbook after collecting data on damaged
roads in the eastern part of the state.  In a few years, state severance
taxes were used for the repair of some of these roads.  The coal
transportation issue was listed as one that could be an ideal focus for a
National Science Foundation "Science for Citizens" Program.  As other non-
profit groups began to take up coal-related issues we realized the field,
which was virtually barren when we started in 1970, had become crowded.  We
surrendered the issue to others, especially after the new Federal laws
stopped some of the most blatant abuses.

     Reflection.  Two currents met and crossed in our initial work in the
Mountains, namely, well worded calls for social justice and actions that
were to help bring these about.  No doubt, I prefer the latter but see a
catalytic utility of the former.  It takes more than research and
publishing studies and must involve legislative action and effective
enforcement of laws.  The blatant abuses due to unregulated strip mining of
coal have somewhat abated, but not totally.  Reclamation occurs today.
However, natural resources are still being exploited and this damages
Appalachian communities as well as the land.  We must remain vigilant and
expose abuse when and where it occurs.  During that short period in the
1970s we were able to address some major coal problems, though other groups
have taken up that struggle in the following years and mining practices
have definitely been less destruction due to stricter federal regulations.
However, we would find in subsequent years that our ASPI mission was to
offer a viable alternative in the form of solar energy to non-renewable
coal extraction and subsequent pollution.  

      Prayer to Know and Love Our Home.  Oh God, give us a sense of home
in the fullest degree.  It is here, and yet it is beyond here, both in
space and time.  Allow us to see what must be done, to speak up, to move to
action, and to stick with doing what has to be done.


46  (1978)    Organizing a Toxic Substances & Trade Secrecy Conference

    How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of one who brings good
news, who heralds peace, brings happiness, proclaims salvation, and tells
Zion, "Your God is king!"  (Isaiah 52:7)

    One bothersome area in the mid-1970s was the so-called privacy
barriers that protected industry from revealing the chemicals present in
and around the workplace, in the products they sold, and in the wastes
emitted from their plants.  Workers and consumers did not have access to
chemical information because the companies regarded these as "trade
secrets."  This concern did not arise out of the blue.  While serving on a
panel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's committee for
designation of toxic chemicals it became apparent that the public is quite
ignorant of what goes into products and what is shipped and stored at
industrial facilities.  Concern on the panel was raised as to both severe
toxicity and heavy volume of chemicals along with persistence and dispersal
into the environment.  The public should know what is in workplaces,
sewers, dumps, and products sold at the market?  Why shouldn't the public
know?  What happens when the proprietary rights of a company clash with the
citizen's right to know?  Other companies which have the analytical
chemical resources to determine products could find out if they care.
Average citizens and workers do not have the resources for such analyses,
but shouldn't they have access to such information?  

   Interest.  The "Ethics and Values in Science and Technology" section of
the National Science Foundation was willing to fund a conference that our
Technical Information Project (TIP)proposed, provided that we had an
advisory committee of sufficiently notable ethicists.  We invited fellow
Jesuit Drew Christiansen who was at Yale at the time along with Wil
Lepkowski of the Chemical & Engineering News and a number of others to join
the advisory committee.  Our battle plan was to hold a conference and bring
in the best minds in the country, and then to write a report outlining the
problem, the discussion of the noted ethicists and some suggestions on what
could be done to protect workers and consumers.

   National Conference.  Throughout late 1976 our staff at TIP prepared
for a three-day conference which was held at Coolfont at Berkeley Springs,
West Virginia in February, 1977.  We took great pains to gather all
interested parties: ethicists, scientists, public interest persons,
government people, and labor union officials.  They had never considered
trade secrecy and toxic substances.  We assembled good speakers including
a noted ethicist, the late Professor William Blackstone of the University
of Georgia.  His presentation was quite clear and precise dealing directly
with the question as to whether the company could withhold information, if
it were of danger to human beings or the environment.  His thesis was that
this secrecy could never be allowed when human health and safety was
involved.  The question pursued by him and Dr. Arthur Caplan of the
Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences at Hastings-on-Hudson,
New York was that companies could be given some protection, but not to the
detriment of health and safety of the public, which is of more basic
concern.  The safeguards already exist in corporate law with patents and
other protection, whereas the failure to disclose needed information could
have detrimental effects on consumers and workers who are exposed to
certain toxic chemicals.  

   Conference Dynamics.  We had a major challenge for we were bringing
together very diverse people, many of whom did not know each other.  The
subject had no established constituency and this meant that great
differences in outlooks existed among invitees.  An added challenge was to
keep the folks in one place and to listen to the various speakers, some of
whom had their own agendas which did not have anything to do with the
subject.  Allowing a happy mix of formal sessions and informal gatherings
is the real merit of such conferences.

   Raising the Basic Question.  It is good to raise basic questions and to
start the ball rolling.  I come from a family that is creative but soon
gets bored once the routine is established.  I think this happened here on
the trade secrecy issue, of which I saw a need to expose the problem but
soon got tired of the business ethics required for coming up with the
solution.  Chemical toxicity was hidden behind the veil of trade secrecy,
but it need not be in this age of sophisticated chemical instrumentation.
Most people do not know that with the proper technical resources that veil
could be lifted.  Bringing together scientists, ethicists, workers and
consumer advocates allows all to understand that old ways can be challenged
and that the right to information is far broader than most would have
expected.  We had advanced the cause of public interest science, but the
time was right to turn it over to the professionals -- within the unions
and consumer protection areas, within governmental regulatory agencies and
within the academic ethical community.

    Follow-up Conferences.  Our Washington-based Technical Information
Project, of which I was president and Art Purcell, executive director,
received a grant to organize four subsequent meetings of experts as a
follow-up of the Coolfont, West Virginia meeting.  An advisory meeting was
held in July 1978 and the conferences were held in February, April, June,
and September of 1979 in and around Washington, DC.  The conferences
entitled "Toxic Substances: Decisions and Values" dealt with the following
areas:  decision-making, information flow, compensation, and worldwide
problems.  The first one started on the morning after the great snowstorm
of 1979. I walked five miles in the middle of the 24-inch snowbound streets
from the home of friends, Paul and Martha Gade, in Arlington, Virginia.
The good thing was most participants had arrived and were in nearby hotels
in the paralyzed city, but the local people found it nearly impossible to
get to the DuPont Circle Building in this pre-subway era.  All and all,
this and later conferences were quite animated and we were able to gather
professional experts.  We held each to schedule, turned out substantive
reports on time, sent these to a variety of interested individuals and
institutions, and essentially acquired a reputation for getting work done
according to the proposed outline.  When in early 1981, ASPI was confronted
by the Reagan transition team to where we were getting governmental money,
it was a good performance record in this project which allowed the National
Science Foundation to go out of their way to transfer our grant to this
more safe academic program when the "Science for Citizens Program" was
dismantled by a vindictive Reagan Administration.

   Reflection.  We were pioneers on the toxic substances and trade secrecy
issue.  But this was a national and global matter which others were willing
to consider as part of their area of interest while I was moving in the
direction of Appalachian regional problems.  However, this toxic substance
issue is one part of a major struggle in support of the voiceless.  How
many people have had lives shortened or have lost their quality of life
because of toxic substances that they did not know about?  This veil of
secrecy went from consumer products in the 1970s to include the dangers at
the nuclear processing plants at Paducah, Kentucky, Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
and Piketon, Ohio, down to our current time.  The toxic substance story
centers on the right of affected people to know what is threatening or
damaging their health and safety, and to know what to do before the harmful
materials lead to fatal illness.  The struggles in the Washington, DC
conference rooms involved environmental justice which extends to toxic dump
sites, chemicals in factories and other workspaces, in fields among farm
workers, in consumer products, and in other unsuspecting places both in
this country and throughout the world.  A vigilant public ensures a safer
environment.

    Prayer for Remaining Incensed.  Holy One, keep us vigilant and willing
to stand up for the voiceless and the innocent.  Teach us that the things
thought so important for commerce are actually secondary to the knowledge
it takes to protect the health and safety of people and the rest of the
environment.  Give us the courage that Jesus showed in driving
moneychangers from the temple, for it was a commons for all the people.  So
let us be advocates for those who share the commons in our workspace, our
commercial markets, our public areas, the air we breathe, and water we
drink.  


47   (1979)    Finding God in the Natural World

     Ever since God created the world [the] everlasting power and deity --
however invisible -- have been there for the mind to see in the things God
has made.  (Romans 1:20)

     Personal Annual Retreats.  As a Jesuit I am expected to make an
eight-day annual retreat.  These events along with two thirty-day retreats
have consumed over thirteen months of my total life and that does not count
at least an equal time giving (not personally making) preached retreats for
others.  My personal retreat time, in contrast to time when I assist others
in their retreats, is something I truly look forward to each year and
regard it as a spiritual vacation.  It gives me the opportunity to withdraw
from daily labors, to converse more closely with God in an undistracted
manner, to review the past year and its supposed achievements, and to make
resolutions and plans for the upcoming year.  We Jesuits do not have a set
manner of making an annual retreat and so we can select an individual
retreat in a formal or informal setting under the direction of a spiritual
"director" or alone, or we may choose to be part of a group making a
preached retreat consisting of talks by a more general retreat director to
a number of persons.  I have made all types in the last half century.

   Silence and Setting Count.  For the retreatant (retreat-maker) silence
and the removal of distractions is most important.  Why so much attention
to where the retreat is made?  The answer for the Jesuit, who is steeped in
the Ignatian Way, is that we start with a "composition of place" and that
sets the tone of what follows.  If we are to meet Jesus, we should
experience the setting in our mind's eye.  If we seek a period of time for
meditation, the composition of place (silence, presence or absence of
people, activity or inactivity, surrounding environment) is key to its
success.  Under normal circumstances we can pray better in a more proper
setting.  Some are forced into constrained settings such as a prison cell
or hospital ward.  Ultimately, God provides a silence in the retreatant's
heart.  Like many others, my optimal setting may change with the years and
the movements of the good Spirit.  I will choose a more formal setting and
the assistance of another when I have had a major decision to make.  The
less bother about meals under certain circumstances, the more time to
reflect on what is needed to be done.  

   Encounters with God.  I crave silence and have packed up and left when
a park where I was camping became too congested.  Granted avoiding human
intrusion becomes more and more difficult because of growing congestion and
the popularity of parks.  However, one answer is to plan the retreats
before or after holidays. I find an exotic place which meets my current
demands.  I try not to carry along too much literature so that the retreat
turns into a reading session.  I do take a retreat journal and make
morning, afternoon and evening entries.  When a side project or resolution
enters, I give this some treatment in an appendix, so that it will not
distract me from the general retreat flow.  Upon entering the retreat I
consider the parts of my life most in need of review and then allow the
Lord to take it from there.  I avoid numerous verbal prayers so that I
remain open and willing to let the Spirit speak.  I strive not to fill the
mind with unnecessary distractions.  And I note whether the Lord gives
consolation during the period of meditation.

    Retreat House Settings.  Generally I find overly suburban retreat
settings with plush beds and private restroom facilities something beyond
my own personal tastes.  Granted, all the one hundred plus retreats I have
given -- as opposed to those I take on an annual basis -- involve such
settings for most go to such settings.  The average person is not bothered
by the affluence associated with modern living.  After promoting simple
living techniques for three decades, I am.  That is why I favor more rustic
settings and realize that many retreat houses are extravagant in their
construction, luxurious in their furnishings, and almost materialistic in
their adornment.  To put it plainly, they are a distraction from the prayer
life to some of us.

   Nature-based Retreat.  I experience God's presence far more intensely
in among the hemlock groves and the rocky mountaintops amid gnarled oaks
and pines than in a motel-type setting.  Others may promote one or other
setting but I am convinced all should, to the degree possible, experience
at least one nature-based retreat.  This is all the more important to my
environmentalist friends.  God speaks profoundly in a natural theological
setting (Romans 1:20).  We need the encouragement to listen which can come
from our natural companions, the plants and animals, which in some way
participate in the community of all living beings.  These creatures
appreciate what I am seeking to do to protect, enhance and live gently
within this world.  They beckon me to participate and not be mere
sightseers either at scenic sites or in a comfortable easy chair at home
virtually touring with a VCR.  As a retreatant in nature, I must not
succumb to being a tourist.  Thus it is best to overcome the novelty of a
natural setting prior to the retreat.  I don't take plant and animal
guidebooks along on retreat.

   Personal Retreat Experiences.  I have experienced several types of
nature-based retreats which are worth pointing out.  In the late summer of
1979, I made my retreat with Robert Beaudoin, a Jesuit Volunteer and the
ASPI dog.  We walked a 150-mile portion of the Appalachian Trail from
Damascus, Virginia to Hot Springs, North Carolina, a stretch that was
beyond our allotted time constraints together with a daunting 50-pound
backpack each. The best meditation analogy was that of Jesus carrying his
cross.  The natural setting was superb and the natural world flooded all
around us as we hiked the rocky trail which traversed the spine of ridge
crests that form the boundaries of Tennessee and North Carolina.  In 1992
I made use of our ASPI "yurt" on the Nature Trail for a hermitage.  This is
a small buildings which is simply constructed and immersed in nature.  In
my senior years I have preferred making retreats in state or national parks
in Kentucky, Vermont, and Massachusetts.   With proximity to trails,
campsites, water, food and toilet facilities these ventures take less
planning, coordination, and ongoing attention than do backpacking retreats
and are for those needing some amenities.

    My Retreat Recommendations.  Experience nature to the degree that it
is possible.  With years I am becoming less active but still enjoy God's
natural settings during times of retreat.  A backpacking retreat would be
of benefit, if it involves an assisting person who transports food and
tents to the next campsite, so that I as retreatant am not burdened by a
backpack.  I continue to be beckoned by the rugged and wild outdoors even
though distractions do stand in the way.  I have to constantly resolve to
keep the way open for God and to offer simple prayers of appreciation and
thanksgiving instead of always begging for gifts or forgiveness.  During a
wilderness retreat I find it easier to thank God for the free time, the
beauty so often unnoticed and the majesty of all creation.  Whether I
choose a tent or lean to or hermitage, I take a cushion for sleeping
comfort though some may combine retreat with penitential exercises.  I try
to choose carefully a location conducive to prayer.  I do not hesitate to
move in the middle of the retreat, if it proves too distracting.  I try to
find what we regard as "sacred spaces" in the wilderness, where the vista
is proper, the surrounding tranquil, the odors pleasant, the tastes
exquisite, and the breezes refreshing.  Here all my senses give praise to
God.

    Excursions during the Retreat.  I establish my base camp and this
becomes a point of departure for day hikes that require no burdensome
packing other than some water and lunch -- provided what is left behind is
reasonably secure.  While others may like to withdraw and close the blinds
during certain meditations or period, and in the darkness of a room find
their God in prayer, I like the sunlight best.  I prefer to withdraw to the
tent or rustic surroundings and to even articulate my prayers out loud when
so moved.  The stillness and silence has its place but some variation is
also proper when so moved.  I can get the urge to get outside for fresh air
and sunshine, then the excursion into the deeper woods, over unused paths,
near the riverbeds, or up into the hills beckons.  I find that pleasant
weather and changes of seasons add to this immersion into the natural
surroundings.

    Reflection on Appreciating the Wilderness.   Wilderness as untouched
by human presence is an unrealistic dream.  When we touch wilderness we can
either harm it or we can thank God for it and thus give it a special
blessing.  Our negative environmental impact through hiking in the Black
Canyon of the Gunnison has been noted.  A more proper goal is to visit
wilderness areas and leave virtually no footprint, but at the same time
find God there.  The retreat is the sacred time to recognize sacred space
and we stand as privileged creatures between this wilderness and its
Creator.  When we enter more fully in a contemplative mode, we suddenly are
caught up into the sacred wilderness, not apart from but part of it.  In
contemplation I can speak for all creation but through a sacred word which
points to the eternal Word made flesh.  My presence is a blessing in
itself, a reaffirmation of a sense of reverence and respect first springing
forth as a child, an enhancement of the wilderness in ways we never before
imagined.  Now, far less innocent but more wise, I can say "thank you"
again with a humility found in life's summertime.  "Thank you, Lord"  for
the unnoticed things of life -- song birds, the delicate flower fragrance,
the slithering snake, and the buzzing yellowjacket.  And the power which
rests in my sincere "thank you" makes all things right and all things
better for being here.  I can now find peace amid other creatures.

   Prayer to the Creator of Wilderness.  Creator God,  allow us to enter
the cathedral of the woods and to marvel at all the diversity and beauty of
the things around us.  Here we discover your Presence and that of the
Trinitarian imprint on Creation.  Satisfy us by simply seeing and not
grabbing, in tasting and not over indulging, in visiting but not
disturbing.  Help us to encourage others to honor and preserve certain
fragile wilderness areas.  


48  (1980)     Advocating for Appropriate Technology

    I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you:  I shall
remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh
instead.           (Ezekiel  36:26)

    In March 1980, we prepared for the dedication of the Solar House that
had just been completed and was our pioneer effort at "appropriate
technology."  This term was highly in vogue during the Carter
Administration and meant (and still does) the use of technologies which are
low-cost, people-friendly, community oriented, and which have low impact on
the environment.  It is a term which derives from the philosophy of E.F.
Schumacher, a German-born technologist and economist, who resided in
England during the Second World War and later in Asia for a period of time.
In Asia, Schumacher saw the need for perfecting simple technologies which
were more applicable for the people.  While I never met Schumacher, I
promised to pick him up at a DC  airport in the late 1970s.  Another
engagement resulted in a fellow worker, David Fry, having the privilege.
Schumacher was born in the same area of the Rhineland where my great-great
grandparents (Schumachers) were from.  Though it is a common name, I regard
him as a cousin and confrere in our philosophy.  One of his closest
associates did come to visit and spent an enjoyable evening at ASPI.  

    The Solar House.  ASPI built its integral solar building (meant as an
office but it has served as a residence for almost two decades) in the
Rockcastle River Valley with a variety of funding sources.  We used a group
of volunteers to build the house mainly from Loyola Academy in Chicago
during the summer of 1979 (three groups of three students and one mentor
each).  We also utilized the services of Robert Beaudoin and Gerry Munley,
members of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and Jesuit priest, Paul O'Brien with
students in the autumn from Brebeuf Prep in Indianapolis, where he taught.
The designer was a local builder, Jerry Nichols, who worked with me and my
brother, Charlie on the basic plan.  It has  window space in the south and
a heat storage system of barrels of water (later replaced by rock which is
more aesthetically pleasing).  The building can grow food, collect
rainwater, use solar energy, and reuse the waste produced in the house.
Most of the ideas are in the book, 99 Ways to a Simple Lifestyle.
       
    Solar Energy.  Solar energy is utilized in several ways:  the sun
warms the first and second floors and we supplement this with wood (a
locally plentiful and renewable energy source) for cloudy days in winter.
Window shades are designed to be raised and lowered each day.  Trees were
cut to make room for the house, but the nearby poplars grew so much by 1997
that they needed more cutting.  The deciduous trees shade the house from
the sun in summer and thus have a pronounced cooling effect. On the other
hand, after the leaves fall the naked trees permit the solar energy to
reach the house and have a desired warming effect.   Solar energy falls on
the five panels of solar photovoltaic panels of about 32 watts each which
are located on the roof.  They remained the sole electric energy source for
seven years; however, the house was finally hooked to the electric utility
grid in 1987 because the occupant wanted to use a sewing machine and other
devices, and current solar energy supply was too low.  Furthermore, solar
panels did not come down in cost as we had predicted during the Carter
years.  We also installed a passive solar water heating unit in the attic
crawl space.  This sprang a leak which we were never able to repair to
satisfaction.  We purchased a wood-fueled water heating unit that was moved
for use at the Nature Center and installed in its place a small efficient
electric unit at the Solar House.
   
    Cistern.  Furnishing water to residences in rural areas can become a
challenge.  Available municipal water was not in the Rockcastle Valley at
that time and we wanted to be independent as to our water source for that
is a good sustainable philosophy of life.  We built a 10,000-gallon partly
buried cistern on the north side of the house out of reinforced concrete
blocks on a concrete foundation.  The cistern collects rainwater off of the
roof which is used for all household needs.  With a filter system, people
are able to drink the soft rainwater and use it for showering and cooking
purposes.  Municipal water later came to the valley but we saw no need for
extending the line (at our expense) to our property.

   Dry Compost Toilet.  Dry compost toilets are appropriate technology
devices that use organic materials in an environment of friendly bacteria
to change human waste materials to useable humus as a soil amendment.  The
process is aerobic (needing oxygen) and involves removing the carbon
dioxide and moisture through an exhaust fan.  We were essentially given a
commercial dry compost toilet called a Clivus Multrum.  Today this type of
commercial compost toilet would cost over $5,000, but ASPI has developed
designs and models which are built by local talent and cost as low as $300
(materials only) to build.  Expenses for commercial types of compost
toilets are attributed to the fiber glass molded containers and their
protective crates.  The Clivus Multrum has worked well for over two decades
as long as it is properly maintained by residents.  Sawdust is added after
each use and the neutral composted product emptied every two years.  

    Solar Greenhouse.  In the summer of 1981 Wayne Clark with the help of
some volunteers built the ground floor solar greenhouse with a backup heat
system consisting of a fish tank.  The amount of light at the lower portion
of the Solar House is limited by an imposing forested hillside, but the
greenhouse has been quite serviceable when furnished with suitable plants.
In fact, the inside has become a beautiful setting with a variety of winter
flowering plants, some of which are transplanted outside during the summer.
A variety of vegetables including mustard, kale, parsley, carrots, Swiss
chard and even cherry tomatoes have been grown through the years as well.
After construction we returned and boxed off the upper portions so as to
minimize overhead air space and allow for better heating in winter.  

    Root Cellar.  In 1984 Peter Ayers helped excavate under the Solar
House for a storage room that doubles as a root cellar.  It proved cool and
dark enough, but the dampness of the Valley does not allow for lengthy root
storage which requires a rather dry condition to keep vegetables from
rotting.  Root cellars such as this are satisfactory for such produce as
winter squash and pumpkins for a portion of the winter season.

    Trip to Paris.  In early spring, 1980, immediately after the Solar
House dedication, I accepted an invitation to go to Paris, France to a
gathering of the World Council of Churches on appropriate technology.  We
discussed the philosophy of appropriate technology and to our surprise
different viewpoints surfaced.  Some western Europeans held a colonial
view, namely, that appropriate technology was the West's gift to developing
or "Third World" countries and comes from a meaning of "to appropriate" (in
both French and English) to take what one owns by another party.  In this
case, ideally the colonialist would make available their idea or device to
technology-deficient colony dwellers -- who are no longer called colonized
but rather independent.  However, another and more preferred view is that
appropriate technology is what is "suitable or proportionate" (same
meanings in both languages);  from this viewpoint appropriate technology
actually thrives in the "Developing World," and the communication among
peoples is to make the suitable way known to others of whatever economic
level, whether in similar or more affluent countries.

     A Detour.  At the end of the intensive week of discussion the North
American consultants took a trip to the Cathedral at Chartres.  This
fulfilled an ambition to repeat the pilgrimage made by my favorite French
writer, Charles Peguy (a polemicist who was killed at the start of the
First World War) to this famous 13th century site.  The imposing Cathedral
emerged as an unforgettable shimmering image in a distance of several miles
as the train approached.  However, the closer we came the more disappointed
I was.  This magnificent work of the Middle Ages is now being damaged by
the modern phenomenon of air pollution and acid rain.  The hand-carved
reliefs on the front were melting before one's eyes (as were Roman carvings
I observed in 1972 in the Eternal City).  While we toured all parts of the
interior, I confess to failing to appreciate the labyrinth on the cathedral
floor which was actually quite famous before these devices became popular
in America in recent years. These are pathways marked out in stone where
pilgrims move to the interior and out again when meditating.  The cathedral
has a closed lower passageway to the famous spring.  The reason for the
sacred site in pre-Christian times, was for its springs of water which were
highly revered by the Celts as well as other earth-religions.  Catholics
tended to baptize the people and their sacred sites and thus the
Cathedral's location.   I hope the French Government will take steps to
protect such structures from further air-pollution damage.      

    Solar Culture.  Appropriate technology's promotion during the Carter
Administration was in part through non-profit group funding.  This was a
heady time and it seemed that the solar age had arrived.  I was elected
President of Southeast Connections which was a coalition of all state and
regional non-profit groups in the eleven southern states and sought to
promote solar energy applications.  The organization was based in Atlanta.
However, the numerous meetings, travel and ongoing excitement took a toll.
Late that summer I took the first public interest break and house-sat in
Alexandria, Virginia for three months for a friend who was away in Europe.
This provided uninterrupted time to prepare a background paper for an
Appalachian land stewardship conference which we were to hold through
National Science funding.  The paper dealt with general land use patterns
in our country and especially in Appalachia and was meant to offer an
overview of such patterns for participants in the conference to be held the
next spring.

  Reflection.  Appropriate technology proponents were convinced by 1980
that renewable energy was here and in a short time it would be in every
household.  We proponents saw ourselves as pioneers who were to lead the
struggle, if we would work harder, manifest a little more enthusiasm, and
speak with deeper conviction.  Many of my friends were good idealists, but
we collectively failed to see limits to the renewable energy crusade.
Little was left for God and grace.  It was prime time for burn-out by some
and it demanded a pause and a stepping back by the rest of us.  Thank
heavens we did step back!  

     Prayer for Spiritual Energy.  Oh God teach us to understand the big
picture, to see the need to engage in well-paced activity that demonstrates
the worth of sound tools and activities, and to be able to be free from the
stress that would hinder this important work.


49  (1981)    Saying "No" to Nuclear Power

    The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye,
and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give.  So she
took some of its fruit and ate it.  She gave some also to her husband who
was with her, and he ate it.  (Genesis 3:6)

   At the time I returned to Kentucky in the summer of 1977 serious
questions were being raised about the propriety of the application of
nuclear power to the electric grid system of our nation.  The collective
guilt of our nation over the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki  led to the ushering in of the Atoms for Peace programs
(electricity, medicine and other peacetime uses of radioactive materials)
during the Eisenhower Administration.  This led to building of dozens of
nuclear power plants both in the United States and other countries.  
However, critics began pointing out the dangers of radioactive material
processes -- from uranium mining to the disposal of spent fuel.  The
Tennessee Valley Authority, that quasi-governmental electric generating and
distributing system, moved stepwise from hydropower applications to coal
generation facilities, and then to nuclear power plants.  By the late 1970s
a number of nuclear power plants were in the planning stage including two
sets of multiple powerplants, each in Tennessee but close to the Kentucky
border.  Likewise other private nuclear plants were being planned for
Moscow, Ohio and Madison, Indiana both across the river from Kentucky.  It
looked like our nuclear-free Commonwealth would be surrounded in a few
years by eight nuclear power plants.

    Past Experience.  With such an emerging situation and due to previous
experience it seemed prudent that Appalachia -- Science in the Public
Interest enter the fray.  I had served on the board of the National
Intervenors since the mid-1970s;  National Intervenors was one of the first
of many citizen groups that delved into nuclear power issues.  Through the
heroic efforts of its director, Irene Dickenson, the organization devoted
time to raising money to challenge power plant licensing as well as
publicizing potential nuclear hazards.  Through grants to our Washington
Center for Science in the Public Interest from the Raskob Foundation,
fellow Jesuit physicist, Bill Millerd, worked on nuclear issues and
compiled a report on the dangers of that source of electricity.  When the
nationwide call went out to protest the opening of the New Hampshire
Seabrook facility, a sizeable portion of our staff was arrested and our
center in Washington essentially shut down until jail releases were
secured.  My Washington colleague, Art Purcell, was asked to help work on
the federal Commission looking into the 1979 near meltdown at Three Mile
Island a few miles from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  He tried to get a
citizen oversight committee organized -- but a number of people objected
and it proved to be the shortest lived Committee record.

    Sorghum Alliance. In the light of this anti-nuclear environment ASPI
was ideal for organizing an Appalachian-wide effort. We coined the name
Sorghum Alliance (for concerned citizens on nuclear issues in central
Appalachia), and it joined a number of other regional coalitions in the
formative stage.   We received funding from the Commission on Religion in
Appalachia and some private money and launched the Alliance to develop
awareness of the nuclear menace in the region.  John Cates, one of our
staff, took a geiger counter and checked for radioactive release in
transport and other facilities near power plants and near the Oak Ridge,
Tennessee nuclear facilities.  We developed printed materials, held
information meetings and, during the summer of 1981, we attended rallies
and marched to halt the building of the Moscow, Ohio nuclear facility on
the Ohio River.  These efforts were part of a rapidly expanding nationwide
anti-nuclear movement, which successfully stopped the purchase of new
commercial nuclear power plants.  Nuclear power plant construction costs
were escalating along with citizen alarm.  The original claims that
electricity from nuclear facilities would be too cheap to meter were
blatantly false, for nuclear power had many hidden costs including those of
disposing of nuclear waste materials and decommissioning nuclear reactors.
Far from being the cheapest electricity source, it was the most expensive
when all economic, environmental and health costs were calculated.
Elizabeth Dodson Gray, an activist friend and theologian, said at one rally
that the problem was that the developers of nuclear power never changed
diapers.  Had they done so, they would have been concerned about waste
materials -- and most likely the nuclear utility program would never have
been launched.  Waste problems loom higher in this age of utility
deregulation and the passing of "stranded" costs to  consumers.

   Beyond the Alliance.  Mary Davis, an ASPI volunteer, took up the issue
of the anti-nuclear movement and organized a general awareness of nuclear
waste transport issues across Kentucky.  She championed the anti-nuclear
cause in a singular fashion and eventually wrote several books on the
subject with a focus on nuclear power in France.  This was because France
was devoid of anti-nuke activists, and its official position was heavily
nuclear-oriented.  Kentucky lies on a potential major rail corridor for
shipping nuclear wastes from the Eastern part of the United States to
potential sites in Nevada. In fact, ASPI is within the triangle of the
three places that uranium is processed and enriched -- southeastern Ohio,
north central Tennessee and western Kentucky.  In 1999, Mary Davis
completed a report on the three uranium processing plants just when the
health and safety issues of workers at Paducah, Kentucky and Piketon, Ohio
and Oak Ridge, Tennessee were becoming well known.  Cliff Hoenecker and
others had heroically been documenting the conditions of the Tennessee
plant for years and their work was also starting to be publicized.    

   Chernobyl.  In April, 1986 a very dangerous event occurred in the
Ukraine, which was far more serious than the Three Mile Island incident in
Pennsylvania.  The Soviet Union tried hard to keep a lid on the disaster,
but Scandinavian scientific monitors detected rapidly rising levels of
radioactivity coming from Chernobyl.  Art Purcell's article in the
International edition of the Herald Tribune was the first published report
which alerted Moscow's public in that pre-Internet era to the explosion of
the nuclear plant at Chernobyl.  Today large areas of the Ukraine and even
parts of neighboring Belarus are contaminated by radioactivity and a
sizeable human population including the very young has been affected.
Leukemia and other cancerous abnormalities and illnesses are rampant among
the Ukrainian and Russian populations in the surrounding areas where the
nuclear accident occurred.

   Critical Hour.  Nuclear problems haunt us.  In brainstorming with my
colleague, Art Purcell, we decided in 1986 to write a book entitled
"Critical Hour" on nuclear waste disposal.  We interviewed people in
Pennsylvania who had first hand experience of the Three Mile Island
disaster.  We wanted to publish a book by the tenth anniversary of Three
Mile Island.  However, the first publisher went belly up and a second
publisher abruptly canceled the contract when the book was in galleys.  I
was reading the proofs for Critical Hour while in Milwaukee in 1991, and
still its hour has not come.  Part of our delay in updating and finding
another publisher has been our inability to outline a clear alternative
decommissioning program of nuclear plants.  Current options are extremely
costly and do not resolve the on-going problem of satisfactory nuclear
waste disposal.  Moth-balling the reactors and coating them with glass-like
highly resistant material appears the best technical solution -- if there
is any.  Actually, most nuclear reactors are continuing in service long
after their anticipated engineered duration.  This is due in part to the
companies essentially rebuilding their plants in order to replace stressed
metal containment vessels which, if ruptured, could cause another nuclear
accident somewhere in the world.
 
  Reflection.  Sir Joseph Rotblat, a noted scientist and philosopher,
says that scientific research is not only subjective but is immoral when
scientists ignore the potential results of research.  Thus scientists
should consider whether they should conduct research and develop certain
technologies.  There is little control over use of dangerous technologies
and use of safer technology, if possible, does not guarantee an accident-
free world.  Nuclear waste materials will remain a problem for thousands of
years because the hazardous waste materials decay slowly.  The nuclear
industry is profitable at the global level;  it hopes to build plants for
North Korea as part of a control deal on weapons grade radioactive
materials program brokered by the West.  While these and other orders drift
in, the call is urgent to initiate the decommissioning process in earnest.
All the while, nuclear waste awaits a disposal solution.   But we cannot
afford to wait.   We need to confront America's collective guilt brought on
by dropping the two atomic bombs on innocent people in 1945 in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, Japan.  We must face the fact that certain areas of
technological possibility are beyond the ability of human beings to control
and treat these properly.  As world citizens we need to ask whether nuclear
power is a modern "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" which should be
left untouched.

   A Prayer for Help.  Oh God, make us aware of what and what not to do,
how we are to help and how we are to strive to halt unsafe practices.  Let
us see that some technologies are more than we can handle.  Help us who
call for caution, to know what we are saying, and to proclaim it
forthrightly so that our world can be a safer place.  Teach us to solve the
vexing problems related to nuclear waste disposal. Give us the insight to
solve problems which seem to be looming so large resulting from nuclear
power generation.


50    (1982)    Presenting Solar Energy to the World

    Look around you.  Look at the fields;  already they are white, ready
for the harvest!    (John 4:35)

    In the early 1980's we found it necessary to balance positive
activities such as appropriate technology with the more negative
environmental problems which drain one heavily.  An opportunity arose for
positive solar work in relation to the ambitious 1982 Knoxville, Tennessee
World's Fair -- which cynics thought would be a bust.  The Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA) was willing to assist our Southeast Connections set up and
operate a Solar House at this upcoming event.  Sympathetic officials
arranged that TVA would pick up much of the publicity, phone, postage, and
coordination costs of the Fair.  It was a difficult summer, for my Dad died
unexpectedly in late June of 1982.  David Pate, our Southeast Connections
executive director,  had a motorcycle accident.  He did not let the bruises
stop him from being a true southerner and he lost no time in charming
people into donating time and services to make the Solar House a reality.
 
    Ideal Location.  A million visitors came and enjoyed themselves during
the duration of the World's Fair.  The highways brought people from all
parts of America, since it was only about a day's trip for about half of
America's population.  Motel reservations were plentiful and some of the
cheapest in our country.  Our solar group had the use of the only prior
existing building, a large two-story house, that was left standing on a
bluff at the Fair site.  It had several large shady oak trees that offered
relief for the fair-goers who found the humidity, concrete walkways and
dazzling white building too much.  The smorgasbord of events overwhelmed
visitors as exhibits vied with each other for attention.  However, the
solar site with its breeze and natural shade became an instant hit.  Years
later, fair-goers would remember the shady Solar House, when I would tell
them of our contribution to the event.

   Solar Applications.  The Fair was for many visitors the first time that
they had become acquainted with solar photovoltaic (banks of cells
containing different materials stimulated by visible radiation) electric
generation for home use, passive and active solar space heating, solar
water heating, solar path lights, solar water heating units, solar food
cookers, solar water distilling units, and solar food dryers.  Natural
cooling by the shade trees became part of the total renewable energy
picture.  For us solar advocates, the summer of 1982 was a temporary pause
in the Reagan Administration's dismantling of the solar applications at the
White House and all solar programs in the government.  However, a
deliberately induced malaise was spreading to the public interest sector.
In fact, this was the last governmental funding (from TVA) and the last
major event of Southeast Connections, for it ceased existing within a year
of this crowning achievement.  David Pate unsuccessfully sought a sponsor
for a second meeting in New Orleans the following year.  He moved to DC,
married, worked for the American Wind Association, and threatened to
migrate to New Zealand with his wife and kid, if Reagan was reelected in
1984.  He has lived in New Zealand since 1985.
 
    World's Fair Conference.  During the course of the 1982 World's Fair
our Southeast Connections sponsored a conference at the University of
Tennessee featuring keynote speaker Wendell Berry, the Kentucky
farmer/poet.  The conference itself had a hard time holding on to
participants because of the ongoing Fair.  We were so numbed by the hoopla
around the Fair that we  failed to consider it would compete for our
conference attendants.  The conference focused on how to improve renewable
energy acceptability in the southeast at the very time that the federal
solar programs were being dismantled.  The failures and small successes of
that meeting did prepare us for the renewable energy funding drought of the
1980s.

   Diversified Funding.  During this time, ASPI was trying desperately to
find alternative income from a variety of sources in order to keep its
demonstration center functioning.  Federal funds were rapidly drying up.
The ASPI Board concluded that, if we were truly environmental, we should
champion diversity of funding sources.  We pinpointed the following funding
areas:  donated time, small donations at a Thanksgiving Drive, income from
newsletters and publications, the Simple Lifestyle Calendar, in-kind
donations through a Wish List published quarterly, some private and non-
profit grants, honoraria through talks, consulting fees from the
Appalachian Institute's environmental resource audits (later assessments),
camping fees, and interest on our small savings.  I mention all of this
because some groups simply ceased to exist when the government money
stopped.  We continued through this early commitment through diversity in
funding sources.   By enacting that policy of diversified funding we have
survived almost two decades of operation without government money until
quite recently.

   Reflection.  Events never go as we anticipate.  Disappointments can
drain our enthusiasm, if we do not see them from a spiritual and longer
range perspective.  Actually, these periods of mixed failure and success
can become opportunities to change plans and take new directions which may
prove more successful in a longer run.  Upon reflection, we renewable
energy promoters found out over a hundred thousand visitors passed through
or near our Solar House at the Knoxville World's Fair, and that was a
sizeable success at relatively low cost.  While the official disinterest in
solar energy during the Reagan years caused our country to lose its
preeminence in solar energy application, still those of us survivors who
witnessed the decimation of local, regional and national solar networks
came out tougher and more dedicated than ever.  We could not depend on fair
weather friends who were there only during time of abundant federal money
in the late 1970s.  We have had to rebuild the solar network, but it is
smaller and leaner than in the 1970s and is beginning to prove successful
in a far longer time frame.

   Prayer for Acceptance.   Almighty God, give us the insight to see that
things are not all smooth sailing, that what we thought would be highly
successful may have times of failure which may not be our own fault.  Help
us take each success and each failure in stride, and to realize that the
road of life has bumpy portions and some smooth straightaway.  Allow us to
bear what comes as part of your Divine Will, and that ultimate good will
come from any situation.


51   (1983)    Building an Affordable House

   The sparrow has found its home at last, the swallow a nest for its
young.                      (Psalm 84:3)

    The desire for one's own home is deep within our psyche,  yet at the
beginning of the millennium one out of six people on this globe do not
either have a place called home or live in decent housing.  A persistent
hope among people is both to live in decent affordable housing and that, as
residents, they may have a hand in making it home.  The principles of
appropriate technology extend to homemaker/builders and include housing of
a reasonable price, made from locally available materials, environmentally
benign, and the construction of which would draw upon the expertise of
average nearby people.  We had strived to apply appropriate technology
principles to housing in building our ASPI solar office.  However, since
our solar building perched on a steep slope did not lend itself to good
office space (too much effort to carry supplies and too difficult for some
people to reach on foot), we had by default not an ASPI office but rather
an affordable, energy-efficient residence.  

    Cordwood Building.  In 1982, we found our office space limited and as
good striving "appropriate technologists" we tried to apply the principles
listed to an office building using only native materials.  We settled on a
model associate Dennis Darcey and I had seen at the United Nations Habitat
Conference in Vancouver in 1976 -- namely, a "cordwood building."  This
uses uniformly cut lengths of wood, "cordwood," stacked as walls and held
in place around each of the two ends with cement.   Staff and volunteers
helped with the foundation during the summer of 1983.  I continued the work
in late summer by laying the cordwood walls.  With permission from the U.S.
Forest Service, we cut about six cord of downed white oak from the 1974
Tornado, which heavily damaged the nearby forest.  Our resulting "cordwood"
building was a type of snug construction generally found in northern
climates using evergreen cordwood.  However, with time the world's
southernmost cordwood building has proved ideal for our hot summer and cold
winter climate.  

   An Affordable Cordwood Building.  From 1976 on I hoped to see the
cordwood building concept be introduced into Appalachia.  It had so many
advantages and is well-suited because our people are poor.  This is a type
of building material (in contrast to plywood or plasterboard) which
requires little processing. The total cost of this cordwood building for us
including foundation, roofing, wiring, solar water heating and compost
toilet was an astoundingly low $6,000 -- but that did not count volunteer
work including my own.  The ground floor has a thousand square feet of
space and there is a snug attic of similar space, which was used like an
unfinished bedroom-loft  for several years.  The building sits amid trees
on all sides and is quite primitive and rustic, but has given immense
service for over two decades.  The only additional expense has been a
second roof cover after about a dozen years due to excessive walking on the
roof.

   Local Materials.  We utilized the tall red oak tree that was standing
on the site for the three central 16-foot central pillars of the building
(these were not cut into cordwood).  The cordwood siding of logs was added
to the building to which a foundation and flooring had already been poured.
The 16-inch native white oak cordwood logs were cut with a chainsaw from
the well- seasoned Forest Service wood which took little effort to debark.
We must note that cordwood construction is far easier than traditional log
house construction requiring cumbersome logs and several stout builders to
hoist in place.  By cutting the pieces into five or ten pound 12 to 16 inch
length cordwood logs virtually anyone can build the walls.  I laid every
one of the cordwood logs with no assistance by mixing mortar one batch at
a time.  It moved quite rapidly.  At the end of each day the laid logs were
"pointed" to make the joints smooth and then the wall was moistened to keep
from drying too fast.

   Other advantages.  Up to that time we had focused on solar
applications, but with cordwood the well-insulated building has proved to
be cool in summer and snug in winter (thus no major source of energy).  I
was proud of this piece of art and, though it had some construction flaws
which I can readily point out, still it resulted in a feeling of
accomplishment.  Added to this, visitors like the design and aesthetic
beauty of the cordwood building which makes it look from a distance like an
expensive stone (not wood) building.  That is in part because what one sees
on the exterior or interior is the round ends of the cordwood and it
resembles a stone surface.  This sense of beautiful housing is of equal
importance to utilizing local materials for an affordable mortgage-free
house for lower income Appalachians.  
 
    Disadvantages.  Not everything in this world is perfect, and home
builders are the first to say their structures are standing proof of human
imperfection.  I build the building in the design offered by Rob Roy in his
book on cordwood building.  It was rounded and thus was quick to build the
walls with no corners.  However, the disadvantage rested in the extra time
required for roofing.  Had we elected to build a chalet-type rectangular
projecting roof, it would have taken the same amount of roofing materials
and yet consumed far less time to cut and fit in place.  A second
disadvantage is that the oak does what cut oak logs always do, and that is
attract tiny wood bees which burrow in a quarter of an inch hole and lay
their eggs.  Sawdust often appears in mid-summer -- even though it would
take about two centuries to do serious damage.  One temporary solution is
to coat the exposed wood with linseed oil/turpentine natural preservative
or the use of equally organic rape seed oil.

   Other Housing Alternatives --  I try not to make cordwood the sole
housing material choice, though it is ideal for forested Appalachia.  Along
with local natural materials some ecologically savvy builders recommend
recycling used building materials from torn down buildings to create
housing.  Often stone and pressed earth are locally available materials
worth recommending.  However, choice building stone may be quite expensive
depending on accessibility to supply.  Pressed earth takes careful
preparation of the proper proportions of sand, clay and humus and added
cement and the walls need weather protection.  A recent native building
alternative fad is that of straw bale buildings.  ASPI has never promoted
these for use in Appalachia where straw is not generally available and the
weather is damp which means that mold will grow in the walls.  Furthermore,
the walls are far wider than cordwood thicknesses and thus costly extra
flooring and roofing is needed to protect these exceedingly thick walls.
   
   First Additional Applications.  In 1999, we completed a second cordwood
building by adding cordwood to the walls of the mobile trailer we had on
the property.  This aging trailer was equipped when installed in 1986 with
a commercial Carousel dry composting toilet, as well as a small cistern.
The pine ends from the nearby Kentucky Forest Products plant that made pine
fence posts were regarded as waste and given to us.  After installing we
preserved the wall by coating the cordwood ends with a mixture of linseed
oil and turpentine along with a small amount of paraffin wax.  The mobile
home was transformed into a permanent cordwood building and excited, Rob
Roy, the leading proponent of the cordwood building method.  He invited us
to contribute a report on our project to be presented at the second North
American Conference on Cordwood Construction in 1999.  I had hopes that
this would inspire other mobile home owners (about 40% of rural inhabitants
in this part of America) to turn mobile homes, which essentially
depreciate, into permanent structures, where their value traditionally
accrue.

   Housing Inspiration, not Construction.  I have never been an advocate
of building housing for others.  Our hope is that each individual will have
the resources to build his or her own housing within a small community or
family unit.  We observed in Peru many build-your-own homes being completed
by the ones who were to live in them.  It was a concept of a modular
housing, building room by room as the family grew.  In fact, this was the
method used by my dad in building our family home.  We hoped this build-
your-own practice would expand throughout our country.  Currently, there
are now a number of cordwood buildings in Appalachia, and we are striving
to encourage building more through demonstration and our web site.
 
   Reflection.  The escalation of home building costs to tens and hundreds
of thousands of dollars pushes the lower income people out of realistic
home ownership.   In addition, modern practices use non-native materials
and tend to promote overly spacious structures which, in turn, demand more
construction resources and non-renewable fuel to heat and cool the unneeded
space.  We can call "home" a far simpler building.  Furthermore, building
conventional homes for others out of charity is disquieting to those of us
who see immense value in building one's own home.  Habitat for Humanities,
which is a decentralized housing program, enlists the efforts of the future
resident to some degree in the construction work itself.  However, the
Habitat homes are most often quite conventional and neglect to include such
features as solar, cistern, compost toilet, or large amounts of native
materials in their design.  In retrospect, we at ASPI have not built large
numbers of buildings but we have shown a method for building which is
worthy of imitation.  The fact that some have used these building
techniques gives us encouragement, but we have hardly made a dent in the
world of conventional building techniques.    

   Prayer to the Master Builder.  Master Builder of the Universe,
encourage us to build the places where we reside and to do so for the
generations to come.  Help us to inspire others to fulfill their own basic
housing needs by building their own structures using native materials and
obtaining a product which they are truly proud and enjoy calling home.


52  (1984)    Assessing Environmental Resources

    But let justice flow like water and integrity like an unfailing
stream.                            (Amos 5:24)

    Demonstrating environmental practices at an Appalachian serves a
useful purpose, but we wondered whether we could be more influential by
taking demonstration "on the road?"  Could the expertise in Appalachian
gardening, renewable energy and low-cost housing techniques be used to
create model demonstration projects at other non-profit institutions both
within and outside the region?   And more importantly, shouldn't every
place be a model  of good use of one's environmental resources?  As an
added feature, could we show that Appalachia has more to offer the world
than coal and timber raw materials?  Also, could the consultation fees we
receive from environmental assessment become a source of income for us?
These questions of the early 1980s had particular urgency when governmental
partnerships collapsed and funding sources dried up during the new Reagan
Administration.

    A Resource Service.  Appalachian groups were seeking ways to stay
alive.  Through our National Science Foundation-funded program we formed
The Appalachian Institute, a loose affiliation of six Appalachian public
interest groups which had been started during the Carter Administration.
Paul Gallimore of the Long Branch Environmental Education Center at
Leicester, North Carolina, and I continued the Institute's project called
the Resource Assessment Service after the Institute lost funding in 1982.
We were convinced that non-profit groups really would like to demonstrate
their environmental commitment through proper use of their physical
facilities.  

   Ten Areas of Community Conscience Examination. I consider the Resource
Assessment Service to be my own major priestly and environmental
contribution, for it has placed in one formal exercise a thorough
examination of community conscience and a commitment to change in concrete
ecologically-compatible ways.  The practices we use at our respective
demonstration centers are unique, fairly successful, and well received by
a wide range of institutions from retreat houses and youth camps to
colleges and parish church facilities.  Over time, we segregated a number
of issue areas for assessment, though the arrangement in a report depends
not on a fixed order like the one below, but rather on an on-site order
dependent upon the needs of the particular group receiving the assessment.
In our 190 assessments to date no two have had exactly the same order but
we focus on one or other issue area for each of a ten-year proposed
development plan with priority given to most urgent focal area in the first
year.  
The ten areas are listed in a random order.

   1. Land use -- Is the land God's gift to us over which we are held
accountable?  Need we look at all uses of land such as lawns, wildscape,
flowerbeds, cultivated fields, recreation areas, woodlands, cemeteries,
sacred space, vacant land, roadways, and building sites?

   2. Energy -- If non-renewable sources of energy are polluting, do we
have a duty to consider renewable energy sources (solar, wind, micro
hydropower, etc.) and energy conservation (interior insulation,
ventilation, window and exterior tree shading and windbreaks)?  

   3. Physical facilities  -- Does the care of our property speak for us
and does the squandering of space call out for changes in our lifestyle?  

   4. Water conservation and protection -- If we are saved through the
sacramental waters of baptism, do we strive to respect the precious gift of
water itself by conserving and protecting its purity?   Do we strive to
create a harmony of land and water for all residents and visitors as well
as wetland enhancement, ponds and lakes, and good water conservation
practices?

   5. Transportation -- If mobility is a blessing which we are able to
partake due to modern transportation, do we have an ethical responsibility
to use these means responsibly?  Does this include vehicle maintenance,
fuel economy, fleet polities, alternative vehicles, carpooling, and parking
facilities, surfacing materials and space arrangements?  

   6. Environment (exterior and interior) --  If something is amiss in our
exterior or interior can we take individual or collective remedial steps?
Should we look at all forms of pollution such as noise, odors, air
pollution, use of houseplants, safety systems, radon infiltration, smoking
practices, and household chemical uses and alternatives?

   7. Community relations --  Do we see the need to enlist the broader
community in our environmental enhancement practices?  Do we consider
programs for and with neighbors, environmental fairs and activities, our
property signs, use of property by neighbors, and oral or video
documentation of community history?  

   8. Waste Management --  Do we regard God's creation as good, or do are
we thoughtlessly waste these gifts?  Do we consider recycling programs,
publicity of waste management commitment, use of office supplies, bulk
purchasing, dumping sites, and reuse of materials?    

   9. Wildlife -- Do we regard wildlife as co-creatures and friends, or
see them as pests and enemies?  Do we encourage or discourage local deer,
other mammals, and migratory birds?

   10. Food -- Do we show our environmental awareness through the type of
foods we eat?  Do we engage in local, organic and intensive vegetable and
herb gardening, community gardening, nutrition education and meal planning?

   Methodology.  For each on-site assessment we have a unique suggested
arrangement of issue areas.  For instance, energy may come first to one
group but rank sixth for another, depending on the manner we perceive the
group could overcome their barriers and hurdles.  For each report we
assemble a written summation of our environmental principles, general
recommendations, explanations of the suggested recommendations and an order
of implementation along with supplementary material and references.  Since
assessed groups are non-profit we have kept the total costs low.  As of
this writing we have performed assessments in 33 states and a province in
Canada.  
       
   Auditing Versus Assessment.  With time we have come to see that what we
called "audits" are really assessments.  In our work we do not audit floor
space, only assess the shortage or oversupply.  We do not determine actual
energy expenditure, but rather assess types of conservation measures or
renewable energy sources possible at the given place.  We do not test soil,
but observe what grows now on land as an indicator of what could grow.
Auditing work should be done frequently by the host institution; assessment
should be done by outside groups on a once in a decade or lifetime
frequency.  Ironically, this is the opposite of what some non-profit groups
do.  They attempt to assess their own place quite frequently and hire
outside groups to audit on an infrequent basis.  If we put this in
spiritual terms, our assessment work is analogous to the work of a
spiritual director who listens and facilitates changes;  the auditing work
is similar to a daily or weekly or periodic examination of life by the
individual person.

   Procedures.  Paul Gallimore and I, along with some consultants, have
conducted these assessments for over two decades.  Sr. Paula Gonzalez, a
biologist based in Cincinnati, Ohio has also been affiliated with this work
as has Phil Stern of the Colorado Project.  At one time we performed about
one assessment a month until I have found it recently too exhausting.   We
have performed assessments with little advertising material, because more
than enough referrals come by word of mouth from one assessed group to
another.  The assessed institution receives a written report within two
months from the time of the on-site fact-finding trip.  We have also held
gatherings of the assessed groups at two-year intervals in 1992 (St. Louis,
Missouri), 1994 (Oldenburg, Indiana) and of the team advisors at ASPI in
Kentucky in 1996 and 1998.  In the year 2000 we sponsored a Land
Stewardship Conference at Milford, Ohio involving assessed religious
groups.

   Reflections on Preaching through Concrete Example.  While assessment
work has often taken us away from Appalachia, it has allowed us to bring
the merits of Appalachia to the rest of the world and thus gain respect for
our region.  Besides this more remote goal, many groups have implemented
suggested measures and transformed their properties into model
environmental communities.  This affords them self-confidence in
environmental matters and helps them become models in their neighborhood
and larger communities.  Their achievements become ours also.  We have
strived to preach positively through promoting wetland enhancement or solar
energy applications, not by directly attacking modern materialistic
tendencies.  We try to show in practical ways that a return to sustainable
living practices is a major component of an authentic spirituality.  Our
ten-year plans have assisted groups to slow down, think carefully, design
well and make the changes to demonstrate good ecological principles.
However, we refrain from pinpointing individual success stories lest other
groups take offense at their omission.

   Prayers for continued assessment.  Oh Just Judge of the Universe, teach
us to see the value of knowing what it is that we use as material things,
how we decorate and embellish our surroundings, how we regard the materials
gifts given, and how we celebrate with them.  Teach us stewardship by being
good auditors of the goods given and by being open to hear how we are to
value what we so often overlook.  And when assessments are made, allow us
to be honest about the changes needed.

The Latch String is Out -- Copyright © 2002 by Al Fritsch